Miami tragedy touches Livingston County community

A 1979 graduate of Keshequa High School and daughter of a long-time teacher and baseball coach at the school is one of the four dead in a Wednesday tragedy in Miami, Fla.

Bob Clark

A 1979 graduate of Keshequa High School and daughter of a long-time teacher and baseball coach at the school is one of the four dead in a Wednesday tragedy in Miami, Fla.

Maria Amador, 45, whose maiden name was Maria Thompson, was shot and killed early Wednesday morning by her husband, Pablo Josue Amador, 53, who also shot and killed their two daughters before turning the gun on himself, according to wire reports.

Doris Marsh, a former principal at Keshequa, said she heard through her church that Maria Amador was Thompson’s daughter.

“Her father’s a member of our Dalton Methodist Church. He had just gone to see them over Christmas.” Marsh said, adding she worked alongside him at the school for several years. “It’s just so surreal. It’s like this sort of thing only happens to other people.”

Marsh said she did not know Maria well, but had spoken to her before.

“Maria was a soft, quiet person,” Marsh said, adding she heard that Amador had been promoted recently to direct the education efforts of the The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. “The children were beautiful, talented children.”

Amador’s father was a teacher at Keshequa High School in Nunda for many years, Marsh said, and he also was the coach of the varsity baseball team and is well-known through his work with the Nunda Rotary Club.

Eleanor Gibson, who worked with Joe Jones — Maria’s grandfather — on his farm in Arkport in the early 1950s, said she knew Maria’s mother, Mary, who passed away around three years ago quite well, but only met Maria once.

“It’s just a tragedy,” she said, citing incidents in Brockport, Canandaigua and a slaying this week in South Dansville as similar tragedies in the area. “In my heart, the devil is working overtime.”

Amador’s brother, John Thompson, works in technical services for the Genesee Valley BOCES, according to Lydia Keough, Keshequa High School librarian.

Keough reviewed the 1979 Keshequa yearbook and said Amador was a member of many clubs, including senior band, stage band, chorus, the biology club and played tennis and soccer at the school. She also received the Daughters of the American Revolution award, a Bausch and Lomb science award and was a Regents graduate.

Police identified those killed Wednesday morning as 53-year-old Pablo Josue Amador, his 45-year-old wife, Maria and their youngest daughters, Priscila and Rosa, 14 and 13. A teenage son, Javier, 16, escaped the shootings uninjured, calling 911 at 5:58 a.m. as he fled the home, police said. Another daughter, Beula, 20, known as Bea, is a sophomore studying music at the University of Miami.